ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the problem of robust implementation of chaotic maps. With an empirical approach, some typical robustness issues have been shown for systems based on piece-wise affine maps. As long as the interest in chaos grows, the research focus progressively expands from speculative analysis to embrace practical exploitation. A certain level of understanding of the chaotic phenomena is in fact indispensable not just to characterize the behaviour, but also to guarantee that the implementation ensures proper robustness and low environmental sensitivity. A trade-off is often involved in the reduction of sensitivity to non-ideal component behaviour, so that for improving accuracy one may have to compromise on other performance indexes or on cost. Clearly, one would yearn for formal, methodic strategies, but unfortunately, a settled, general theory for estimating the sensitivity of chaotic circuits does not yet exist.
